


Philosopher's Mirror

by Triscribe



Series: Alternate Living Arrangements [9]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: A lot of previously dead people come back to life in this one okay, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ancient Magical Artifacts Not Used As Intended, Family Feels, Resurrections, it is Ridiculously self-indulgent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-28 09:20:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20061667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Triscribe/pseuds/Triscribe
Summary: In that very moment, Harry’s magic surged out of his body, through the Philosopher’s Stone, and into the Mirror of Erised. A powerful act of love was made manifest. An explosion shattered both magical artifacts.And three bodies fell to the floor.





	1. Harry's Greatest Desire

**Author's Note:**

> It is our boy's birthday and I'm giving him the best gift I can think of.
> 
> That said, this is one of the two most utterly self-indulgent fics I have ever plotted out, and I don't wanna hear one word of complaint or argument about how "magic doesn't work like that," I am Beyond Caring at this point.
> 
> My warning aside, hope you enjoy!
> 
> -Tri

Harry panted as he staggered back from Quirrell’s crumbling form. The professor’s last scream seemed to echo through the room, gaining strength rather than fading away. A moment later, the boy realized why.

Smokey fumes billowed up from what remained of Quirrell, and surged towards Harry. He cried out as they passed through him, burning and tearing. Harry’s right hand spasmed around the Philosopher’s Stone, and though he could not see it, the red material glowed, causing Voldemort’s shade to flee. Harry collapsed then, but he did not pass out.

Instead, the boy craned his head around to look at the Mirror of Erised, only a couple of yards away.

Hurting, alone, and more than a little dazed, Harry forced himself to crawl to the mirror. No coherent thoughts dictated this action - only the vague, emotional need to be comforted. Sure enough, once he was close enough, his parents appeared in the reflective surface. They crouched down, looking at him with concern.

Scooting forward the remaining distance, the boy rested his head against the mirror. There was a throbbing pain growing everywhere in his body, which was getting harder and harder to ignore. So, Harry did all that he was able to do. He lifted both his hands to press against the spots in the mirror where his parents were reaching for him.

In that very moment, as he began to lose consciousness, Harry’s magic surged out of his body, through the Philosopher’s Stone, and into the Mirror of Erised. A powerful act of love was made manifest. An explosion shattered both magical artifacts, embedding a single shard of each into Harry’s palms. And three bodies fell to the floor.

-P’sM-

“Do we even know if the lad is still alive, Albus?” Minerva asked as she ran. Ahead of her was the Headmaster, and a step behind came Severus. The three had just been entering the room beneath Fluffy’s domain, along with Pomona and Filius, when they encountered Hermione Granger dragging a bloodied and unconscious Ronald Weasley towards them. Albus ordered the Heads of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff to take the students to the infirmary, while he and his two most trusted lieutenants hurried on to discover the fates of Quirinus Quirrell and Harry Potter.

“We don’t, my dear, but nonetheless I pray we are not too late.” Albus sounded more grim than he had since the war, which only caused Minerva to increase her pace.

Not more than a minute later, the three of them passed through the room of ravaged chess pieces larger than a man, and reached a doorway barred by flames. Severus stepped around the older professors, pulling a vial from his pocket as he did so. Half of the substance within it was poured onto the flames, dousing them instantly.

“Well done, my boy,” Albus praised him. Severus repeated the act at the next flame-filled doorway, and then the trio arrived at the final defense for the Philosopher’s Stone.

To say they were surprised by the additional occupants of the room would be a severe understatement.

“What in Merlin’s name...?” Minerva whispered as she stared down at the limp forms of Harry, Lily, and James Potter. Both adults had their hands placed protectively on the boy where they laid in a field of shattered glass- 

-and each was visibly breathing.


	2. Rude Awakenings

“What do you mean, we’ve been dead for _ten and a half years?”_

Harry’s nose twitched.

“Just that, my dear. We are currently in May of the year nineteen ninety-two, more than a decade since the night Voldemort arrived at your home in Godric’s Hollow and-”

“Yes, thank you, Headmaster, I can very clearly remember what happened when _he_ came into our house. What I _don’t_ understand is how James and I seem to have jumped from then to now, completely missing ten years of peacetime and my baby growing up.”

Harry frowned.

“I’m with Lily on this one, Albus. What happened to us? What happened to the Dark Tosser? And if it’s really been a full decade, why does Harry look small enough to be a nine year old?”

“‘M ‘leven,” Harry mumbled, struggling to open his eyes. He would have flinched in surprise when a soft hand set itself upon his forehead had he not been so exhausted.

“If you say so, Harry love.” The woman’s voice seemed familiar, like he’d listened to it a long time ago. “Now go back to sleep, sweetheart. Your magical core was practically drained - you need all the rest you can get.”

“M’kay.”

Harry let his eyes shut and drifted off again.

-P’sM-

The next time Harry awoke, people were shouting.

“WHO THE BLOODY HELL STUCK HIM IN AZKABAN FOR TEN YEARS WITHOUT A TRIAL?!”

“Now, James-”

“Don’t you _dare_ attempt to call him down with so-called logic, Albus!”

“But Lily-”

“Or me _either_ for that matter!”

Memories of listening to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon’s occasional arguments had him simply ignoring it all and falling asleep once more.

-P’sM-

“No, we’re still not sure what happened,” a male voice was saying when Harry woke up with a yawn. “Only that Harry did something after facing off with the Dark Tosser’s shade possessing one of the teachers.”

“Wait, what?” Someone new interrupted, sounding startled. “How did that happen? Aren’t there wards around the castle to keep something like that from getting inside?”

“Honestly, Moony, at this point I wouldn’t have put it past Dumbledore to have let him in deliberately, hoping to trap the shade.”

“Dear Merlin...”

Another new person, his voice much more hoarse than the other men, spoke up from somewhere to Harry’s right. “I think the kid’s awake, Prongs.”

Immediately, Harry sensed someone move to stand over him, a gentle weight pressing down on the pillow beside his head. “Harry? Can you hear me?”

“Mm-hm.” The boy slowly opened his eyes and peered upward, though the most that he could see was a vaguely human sort of shape. “Hi?”

“Hey, kiddo. You really had us worried for a while there,” the shape said, in a relieved tone. Harry blinked in surprise, and squinted to try and see if he could figure out who it was.

The shape must have realized what he was doing, because it disappeared for a moment before returning and sliding Harry’s glasses onto his face. As soon as the boy could see more clearly, he looked up again, and gasped.

Standing over him was the man from the Mirror - his father, James Potter.

“You- but- you’re- what?”

“Guess he doesn’t know what happened either, then.” In the bed one over from his, a gaunt-faced man with tangled dark hair grinned at Harry. “Hi, Prongslet. Don’t suppose you know who I am anymore, do you?”

“...No?”

A third man standing in the aisle, with lighter hair and several scars on his face, coughed. “In that case, perhaps we should give him some long-overdue introductions.”

“A fair point, Moony. Harry, I know this is probably too strange to be believable, but I’m your dad.”

Harry replied in a whisper, “I know. I saw you and Mum in the Mirror.”

“Well, that’s, that’s something, at least. Anyway, these are my best mates in the whole world - Remus Lupin and Sirius Black.”

“Also known as your honorary Uncles Moony and Padfoot,” the second man, Sirius, said.

“...Why are you here?” Harry finally asked, glancing from the two strangers up to his- his- his dad. “And _how_ are _you_ here?”

James sighed. “We... Aren’t sure yet, only that you managed to do something to cause it, kiddo.”

“I did?”

“Uh-huh. Destroyed the Philosopher's Stone and Mirror of Erised at the same time, too, which was no easy feat considering how powerful those artifacts were.”

Harry felt himself grow pale. “Oh, oh _no.”_ Thoughts of punishment and expulsion immediately began to pile up in his head, and it took a minute before the boy realized he was panicking, his breath coming faster and faster at the looming reality of returning to the Dursleys in disgrace with no hope of ever escaping again.

He jolted when a pair of arms unexpectedly wrapped themselves around him, one large hand cupping the back of his head while the other rubbed at his back.

“Shh, Harry, it’s okay, you aren’t in trouble, I promise, everything’s fine-” James continued to murmur in his ear until Harry gradually calmed down. For the first time, the boy really started to believe the man was his actual dad.

Just then, the infirmary doors were pushed open, and the woman from the Mirror stalked inside, looking positively murderous.

“Honestly, _what_ were they all thinking, going along with Albus’s ideas - Hagrid I suppose I can understand, but Minerva ought to know better, and Filius too! And Severus, dear Merlin I’m ready to strangle that man-” She stopped growling when James coughed in her direction, and ceased moving entirely when her eyes met Harry’s concerned ones.

“M-mum?”

“Oh, sweetheart,” Lily Potter breathed, a moment before she hurried forward to embrace him as well. “How are you feeling, Harry?”

“I’m fine,” he replied, leaning into her hug. He wasn’t used to being held, snugly or otherwise, but there was comfort to be had just in touching his parents - his _parents!_

“Are you sure, love? You’ve been asleep for several days now...” His mum pulled back from the hug just enough to peer down at him. “Can you remember what happened?”

Harry shrugged slightly. “Quirrell had Voldemort on the back of his head. They wanted me to get the Stone for them out of the Mirror, so Voldemort could come back properly. I didn’t give it to them when it showed up in my pocket, but somehow, he knew, and told Quirrell to take it from me - except, his hands got burned when he tried to grab me, s-so I, grabbed, him...” The boy trailed off, starting to feel ill again. “I _killed_ him.”

“Harry.” His dad’s voice was quiet, but something in it still compelled the eleven year old to look up and meet his gaze. “It was self-defense, kiddo. If you hadn’t done what you did, they would have murdered you, and none of us would be here now.”

“There’s nothing to feel guilty about, Harry,” Remus added from where he’d sat down beside Sirius on the other bed. “Do you recall what happened after that?”

“There- there was smoke- what was left of Voldemort, I guess. He came out of Quirrell and, and tried to hurt me, before he disappeared. And I... I remember...” Harry looked from his dad to his mum and back again. “I wanted you two, I think. So, I went to the Mirror. And, that’s it.”

“...I in no way claim to be an expert,” Sirius spoke up after a few minutes of silence. “But this mirror everyone keeps bringing up - it showed a person their heart’s greatest desire, right?”

“Yes, Padfoot.”

“And Harry saw you two in it.”

None of the Potters could quite speak in reply to that, so they each nodded instead.

“Then we’ve also got the Philosopher’s Stone added to the mix-” 

“The key ingredient of the Elixir of Life,” Remus murmured, picking up his friend’s train of thought. 

“Exactly. Now, I don’t know what the specifics are - probably, none of us ever will - but I’d say that Harry’s magic must have somehow connected those two artifacts, allowing one to fulfill the wish contained within the other.”

“The same conclusion I came to, Sirius.” All of them jumped a bit at the sound of Dumbledore’s voice. The headmaster stood just inside the infirmary doors, smiling at their little group as his eyes twinkled merrily.

“I asked you not to bother us unless it was important, Professor,” Lily said, frowning.

“Yes, I know my dear, but I’d hoped that since Harry has awakened, he might be interested in learning just how he was able to fight off Quirrell and Voldemort as he did.”

“You mean, _you’re_ interested in learning the particulars yourself.” James snorted, shaking his head. “Potter Family Magic, Albus. To share it is to lose it, and I’m not willing to do that, not when the Dark Tosser’s still around and after Harry.”

Dumbledore visibly deflated. “Ah. I see, my boy. That would explain why none of my research was able to turn up anything informative, I suppose.”

“Exactly. So, is there anything else you need...?”

“No, no, though, perhaps young Harry would be interested in knowing that there are a pair of Gryffindors waiting in the hall, eager to see him.”

Harry straightened as much as he could while still held by his parents. “Ron and Hermione? They’re okay?”

“They’re just fine, love,” his mum said. “Those two have been as much time in here as they could, keeping an eye on you as well as sharing stories with us. Do I need to bother telling you that eleven year old wizards are not supposed to go anywhere near mountain trolls of _any_ age?”

Though her mouth and eyebrows were slanted in a reproachful expression, Harry could see a spark of humor in his mother’s eyes. At least, he hoped it was humor. Tentatively, he offered her an apologetic grin - and in an instant, her face softened, an amused smile taking over.

“Well would you look at that, he’s got The Face!” Sirius laughed, nearly breaking down into coughs. “Good to know the next generation of Potter will be able to get himself out of trouble with the ladies just as easily as his old man!”

“Huh?”

“Padfoot,” James growled, glaring at the other man over Harry’s head.

“Time to hush now, you.” Remus pushed a hand against his friend’s chest, forcing Sirius to settle back onto the bed with a huff.

“Is it alright if my friends come in?” Harry asked, gaze flicking from Lily to James and back again. Both of them blinked, before smiling and nodding.

“Excellent! I’ll send them in directly.” Dumbledore left at that, and a moment later, two small forms came hurtling into the infirmary, each barely stopping in time to avoid skidding into their destination.

“HARRY!”

“You’re finally awake!”

“Don’t _ever_ scare us like that again-”

“-been asleep for days-”

“-entire castle’s been wondering what happened-”

“-missed all your exams, but the Headmaster promised to excuse you-”

“-all of Gryffindor’s been leaving things for you with this lot-”

“How did you do it, Harry? I’ve not read anything about magic being able to bring people back from the dead!”

At Hermione’s final outraged pronouncement, Lily cut in, causing both children to fall silent. “That’s because many people have attempted to create proper resurrection spells before, with terrible consequences, to the point that Necromatic magic is banned across the globe.”

“Does that mean Harry’s gonna be in trouble?” Ron asked, eyes wide.

“No,” James quickly said. “This was an accident. The magic involved didn’t include anything like Necromancy - even if we aren’t entirely certain of what all _did_ go into it.”

The other two children nodded, though the redhead did give his friend a shrewd look. “Even so, mate, I think I’d make a show of following the rules for a while. Just in case.”


End file.
